It's half past seven in the evening. The color of the sun is turning golden but it is still hot. It is 26 degrees outside. There are no boat owners or passengers in the harbor. There is one small building in the port where a ticket seller sits despite the fact that the last ferry of the day to Piirissaare departed half an hour ago. The water of the lake sings against the ferry's landing bridge. There are swallows nesting right under the bridge and motor boats can be heard from the lake

The sound of Lake Peipsi in Laaksaare boat harbor. Field recording. Estonia June 30, 2021

Recorded at Grundskatan, Bjuröklubb, morning the 16 May 2018. A wet area with much leafy trees (alskog) near the shore of the Bothnian bay, Bottenviken. The two Woodpeckers were foraging at the trees.
Gear: two Sennheiser MKH20 in stereo on a Jecklin disc. Recording was running for about 30 min.

Frogs and White-backed Woodpecker

Haunting Red Deer rutting in the forest of Orléans

the pond and the trees beyond with quiet inside

Late morning in Palupõhja village Alam-Pedja nature reserve, Estonia. Different little birds are chirping in the trees next to the village road when suddenly a black woodpecker comes and bangs his drum four and a half times. The recording was made in the late morning of April 17, 2023

Equipment used: Zoom F3 digital recorder An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. Recorded 32 bit 48kHz

Black woodpecker drumming

30 May 2023

To get good recordings of birds you have to come close. On way of achieving this is to work with concealed microphones. It’s not easy to predict where the target bird/s will be, and I regularly fail in my attempts, but occasionally I succeed. I scouted a semi-open sandy area – a former tree seed orchard –  where I had encountered lekking Black Grouse last year, and hid a small stereo lavalier microphone overnight in the crown of an isolated small pine tree. One by one the Black Grouse males arrived in the late evening hours and immediately began displaying around the small pine tree.  

Umeå commune, Västerbotten County (63.39 N, 19.54 E)

Primo-EM172s

01_01.05

In the middle of the Black Grouse lekk

Zoom F6 + Sennheiser 8020 mono in Telinga parabolic + Sennheiser 8020 pair in Olsen wing for stereo ambience (-18 dB).

Blackbird Midsummer 230624

The echoes of Eurasian Cranes are bouncing from forest edges in countryside landscape of Rõuge parish, Estonia. It is a distant corner of southern Estonia with only a few farmhouses in sight.
The song of skylarks is filling early morning spring air, goldfinches and a northern wheatear are vocalising nearby, looking for a suitable nesting site next to a small country house and several old oak trees. Other birds in the recording: wood pigeons, eurasian cuckoo, willow warbler, crow.

Spring morning soundscape in southern Estonia countryside

Psarocolius montezuma recorded at a nesting colony, near Turrialba, Costa Rica. 5.30am 2nd March 2018. Primo 172 mics AB to SONY PCM-M10
Overall winner of 2019 Competition of Wildlife Sound Recording Society
https://simontelliott.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/some-birds-have-all-the-luck/

Montezuma Oropendola

This is the second time I have used this microphone, the Rode NTG-8 long gun mic.  For a few years now I have been using the short gun mic the Rode NTG-3 an amazing mic.   Interesting to see how more directional it would be.  I went out to an area in the foothills of the south Wicklow mountains (Ireland)down a quiet road to visit a stubble field as it is surrounded by good hedge rows.  I was soon recording.  In one place I could hear three Yellowhammers in song, usually two.  In the last recording (The Robin - song) I was not very close to the bird, however I was very surprised how close up it sounds, even though it was about 4 to 5 meters away.  
It was a nice clear mild morning and very noisy as the north drift of air brought in traffic and tractor noise from the Woodenbridge area.  
I have to try out this mic more, however it is odd in that it seems to be not really directional, yet later when processing the recordings I am blown away at just how close up the birds sound. I still need the recording area to be quiet, however it gives a very helpful amount of rejection to sounds that are off axis. 
I put the recordings into one file, and are in the following order.  All tracks are mono.  The recorder used was the Sound Devices MixPre3.

Yellowhammer - song.
Robin - ticking calls.
Wren - ticking calls.
Wren - one song.
Robin - song.

My thanks to pixabay.com/users/TheOtherKev-9436196/  for the image of the Yellowhammer.

Rode NTG8- Experiment. 8 Aug 2020 Rostagah Wicklow Ireland

Spring Undergrowth

A cabinetmaker by trade.  I have been recording birds for over 40 years.  Even as a seven year old I loved to hear the sound of birds. 
I believe that birdsong is a perfect reflection of the natural environment and yet a part of the experience of the environment.  
Over the years I have made some wildlife films and videos.  For wildlife recording I have been around Ireland, Wales, Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Belize, Guyana, Brazil, Peru and Costa Rica. At the moment I have 26 albums of birdsong/nature, most of which can be found here for free download in high quality F.L.A.C. format.
  
Birdsong is Spiritual Medicine,
a Natural Treasure 
and a Companion to Silence.

Rode NTG8- Experiment. 8 Aug 2020 Rostagah Wicklow Ireland

Fintan O'Brien

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